Darby Flyer:
DAF95XF:
Dunno how many drops I do a day, but it must be a couple of hundred a day AND I dont have to get out the cab to load/unload either…
, must be on the busses then.
I used to work for securicor omega express in bristol, my limit was 120 drops per day, owt over that was a bonus but couldnt be assed used to leave all private addresses.
Was self employed very good money, no pick ups and home for 14.00 every day.
I think thats for younger kids now lol
Once done a day for parcel force after a lot of messing about i was given a hire transit told to load 80+ drops at noon , and all had to be done for 5pm!!!
Was luck if i got half off , brought van back to unhappy TM , after a few snide remarks i told him where to stick his drops (polietly), bit much i think to expectt a stranger to get all they drops off in 5hrs !
Ayg tryed to not to pay me for it , but threatened them with union its amazing how they got the cash in my acc!!!
Wheel Nut:
The youth of today eh?United Carriers, Ripponden and District, Wilkinson Transport and Rainbows used to do that before dinner.
In reality 70 to 80 drops was normal without a mate but it is feasible as you can carry three drops in one hand and another on a sack barrow in a street. It probably is much more difficult today as well, because I used to park the truck half way down the street and do about 15 drops without moving or even locking the truck up.
The trick is to sort the next 10 drops out and place them in order near the tailboard every time you climb in the back.
It was always fun at christmas when you had a full van load of parcels, broadloom carpets and push bikes
I was one of those Rainbows drivers!
Dead right, if you got a good mate with you it was a doddle, but in those days most of the drops you just had to get the driver’s sheet signed, none of this mucking about with printed name, date, time, inside leg measurement and what you had for brekkie like you do now. That took a lot of time up, 'specially with the old-fashioned storemen; Rolls Royce in Derby especially!
Who were you with?
gnasty gnome:
Wheel Nut:
The youth of today eh?United Carriers, Ripponden and District, Wilkinson Transport and Rainbows used to do that before dinner.
In reality 70 to 80 drops was normal without a mate but it is feasible as you can carry three drops in one hand and another on a sack barrow in a street. It probably is much more difficult today as well, because I used to park the truck half way down the street and do about 15 drops without moving or even locking the truck up.
The trick is to sort the next 10 drops out and place them in order near the tailboard every time you climb in the back.
It was always fun at christmas when you had a full van load of parcels, broadloom carpets and push bikes
I was one of those Rainbows drivers!
Dead right, if you got a good mate with you it was a doddle, but in those days most of the drops you just had to get the driver’s sheet signed, none of this mucking about with printed name, date, time, inside leg measurement and what you had for brekkie like you do now. That took a lot of time up, 'specially with the old-fashioned storemen; Rolls Royce in Derby especially!
Who were you with?
I worked for United Carriers in Howden, my opposite number on Rainbow was a smashing old bloke called John. We did Lincoln together for ages chasing each other around the same factories & shops.
The main thing was that you never closed the rear roller shutter, only the hinged tailboard with one clip to save time. It was only after one of our lads lost a case of shotgun cartridges off the back that things tightened up with padlocks and alarms.
I once lost a rear tractor tyre in a ladies garden in Gainsboro. I only found out when i arrived in Saxilby and the customer had received an irate phone call, plus I had only 1 of 2 tyres destined for him. I drove back to Gainsboro to get the errant tyre and bought her a bunch of flowers so she didnt call my boss 
I did a day on vans for the local DHL office, called in last minute a jump out of bed and no breakfast type of thing, so running a hour late to start with, all the vans were parked up and being loaded, mine seem to have twice as much as everyone else, my thought was that I had yesterdays on as well, but hey ho off we go. It was Skipton, Crosshills, Colne sorta area. Feeling good the first ones in Skipton just fell off, but then I came to the farm addresses and it all went very pear shaped quickly. The form I had to fill in if no one was there took some time and most of them were out.
I think I got to 15.00 and remembered I had no eaten or indeed stopped for 6 hours. Stopped near my mum and dads and they brought out a bit of food and coffee to me parked in the drive trying to sort boxes out. Got to 17.30 and light was fading and of course the business addresses were closing fast, then I found out the light in the back did not work, so really that was the end of that.
I had been told I should try to get them all off before coming back, but I reckon I had half still on, with the light issue and the prospect of still delivering at midnight I decided to return. It was chaos in there and I could time the supervisor was very unhappy with me. In fact he was a bit unpleasant and after a dressing down in front of the whole place was then asked to bring the van in, unload it and then help unload the trucks for the hub that were in.
I brought the van in locked it and got the girl at reception to sign my paper and left never to return.
I did a shift for nightfreight that had 60 drops and they were nowhere near each other. One drop was in Sheffield, another in Chesterfield, another drop was half an hours drive from there - and they wern’t simple parcel drops. One was a three peice suite that you had to take up 3 flights of stairs.
I think I’d done about 15 drops by the time I chalked on it and took the rest back. The drivers mate was moaning “If you don’t do all 60 drops, they put what you didn’t do on the van for tomorrows job”.
JeffA:
The drivers mate was moaning “If you don’t do all 60 drops, they put what you didn’t do on the van for tomorrows job”.
So True. 
I think the worst time of year was the final days before christmas and the first few days of the new year. You had to work your way round, everything was urgent but some businesses were closed, stocktaking or at a christmas party, so you had to take a lot of drops back to the depot and try again the next day.
Wheel Nut:
I worked for United Carriers in Howden, my opposite number on Rainbow was a smashing old bloke called John. We did Lincoln together for ages chasing each other around the same factories & shops.
That’d be John Winn; a distant relation of mine, actually, through marriage. His brother, Ron, was my uncle.
Do you remember Dennis, who used to be the mate? His nickname was “Toothache”, real old character who was inevitably half-cooked, but could do Lincoln on auto-pilot. Modern customer service techniques had largely passed Dennis by, and there were one or two places where we had to keep him out of because his language and attitude had upset the receptionist!
I used to do the Lincoln run myself when John was on holiday; handy 'cos my great-aunt lived in Skellingthorpe and I was guaranteed a brew.
gnasty gnome:
Wheel Nut:
I worked for United Carriers in Howden, my opposite number on Rainbow was a smashing old bloke called John. We did Lincoln together for ages chasing each other around the same factories & shops.That’d be John Winn; a distant relation of mine, actually, through marriage. His brother, Ron, was my uncle.
I used to do the Lincoln run myself when John was on holiday; handy 'cos my great-aunt lived in Skellingthorpe and I was guaranteed a brew.
What sort of date was that, we may have had a brew on Outer Circle Road or in the High Street layby near Bracebridge Heath.
I was at UCL twice, around 1979 and 1985/86
Can you name a strange occurence on Lincoln High Street?
Wheel Nut:
What sort of date was that, we may have had a brew on Outer Circle Road or in the High Street layby near Bracebridge Heath.I was at UCL twice, around 1979 and 1985/86
Can you name a strange occurence on Lincoln High Street?
You left just before I started; my first year at Rainbows’ was 1987. What was the strange occurrence ? Apart from the ever-present hazard of getting stuck between the two level crossings of course!
JeffA:
The drivers mate was moaning “If you don’t do all 60 drops, they put what you didn’t do on the van for tomorrows job”.
That’s why I can see a big double decker artics with a signs “Parcel delivery network” - that’s just guys, who can’t do as much drops per day as required and then it’s just growing up like a snowball 
gnasty gnome:
Wheel Nut:
What sort of date was that, we may have had a brew on Outer Circle Road or in the High Street layby near Bracebridge Heath.I was at UCL twice, around 1979 and 1985/86
Can you name a strange occurence on Lincoln High Street?
What was the strange occurrence ?
The numbers on the High Street run consecutively or logically from number one to St Katherines and back down the opposite side
when i was on the agency i did a lot for dhl in aberdeen usually either on as relife for the keith or deeside run was at the time the only agencie driver who could compleate the deeside run which consisted of any thing from 80 to 150 drops a day. really strugelld for the fist few days till i had some box’s for the butcher in balleter as i went in with them all hell broke lose all these people asking where there parcels where
it turns out old fred used to leave all the balleter private parcels with the butcher same in all the villages on his run
the old ■■■■ got it sussed instead of him running about like a red arsed bee he only really deliverd to bussineses havent don the run for about 6months but reckon i could still do it in around four hours
farmer:
as i went in with them all hell broke lose all these people asking where there parcels where
it turns out old fred used to leave all the balleter private parcels with the butcher same in all the villages on his runthe old ■■■■ got it sussed instead of him running about like a red arsed bee he only really deliverd to bussineses havent don the run for about 6months but reckon i could still do it in around four hours
Used to be a lot of that went on, before everything had to be signed for in triplicate. Nowadays it’s a real PITA getting a parcel delivered unless you actually stay home the whole day. Not everything is progress!
Yeah its possible, most ive done in a day is 125 and 15 collections, and thats doing 160 miles from Ipswich, to colchester, Marks Tey, Coggeshall, Kelvedon and Tiptree. I used to do parcel work before my HGV!
Aaron
I used to work on the vans for Reality (Argos and Littlewoods deliveries). I was mainly a POD signature delivery driver for the big stuff like furniture, and I’d cover the entire of Birmingham and outlying parts outside the motorway, I’d usually have about 30-50 drops and it wasn’t too bad to be honest. This was before satnavs were mainstream so I used an A-Z and spent the first 1.5hours of the day loading the van in the right order and mapping all the roads I needed and putting the deliveries in the most efficient order making it a doddle for the rest of the day.
I’d often got 70-80 or so deliveries which is when it got silly though, especially when people ordered about 5 bits of flatpack furntiure but weren’t in, so it had to sit in the van blocking everything in all day, and when it get’s dark finding house numbers becomes a pain in the arse and I used to just give up and take the remainder back like most people, they knew you couldn’t do it, just tried it on.
I briefly did 150 drops a day which was the same sort of thing but I was given 5 to 10 postcode areas and lots of small items like clothes, flowers and catalogues, often 3 or 4 in the same road. This was easier but it involved parking up and walking a lot which wasn’t great as my area usually included Lozelles, Sparkbrook, Shard End and Alum Rock etc… 
I think I only ever managed to actually take a break for lunch once or twice, usually I just worked solid. Wasn’t a bad job to be fair, especially doign Solihull and the like, some of the nice women who answer the door, the amount of flowers I had to deliver to bored looking housewives, made me wonder if there’s lots of very loving blokes out there or lots apologising for spending too much time with their secretary